Ana Sofia Silva, MIT Portugal alumna, was distinguished with the Best Thesis Award for her PhD thesis, entitled "Multifunctional nano-in-micro formulations for lung cancer theragnosis", during the 16th European Meeting of Supercritical Fluids in Essen, Germany, on May 11th 2016. This award is attributed every two years by the International Society for the Advancement of Supercritical Fluids to distinguish the best works developed by recent graduates.
Ana Sofia Silva’s PhD was carried out at NOVA's Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia (FCT/NOVA), at the Polymer Synthesis and Processing group, from LAQV-REQUIMTE, under the supervision of Ana Aguiar-Ricardo, Full Professor at the Chemistry Department of FCT/NOVA. The research work was done in collaboration with the Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering group from Universidade da Beira Interior (UBI), under the supervision of Ilídio Correia, Assistant Professor at UBI.
Ana Sofia Silva’s thesis proposes a new therapeutic approach to lung cancer, the most common and leading cause of cancer death in both men and women worldwide. Despite the clinical and technological advances, the majority of patients are lately diagnosed with either locally advanced or metastatic disease. In fact, 86% of the patients with lung cancer die within two years, while only 14% survive for five years.
Lung cancer therapies struggle with many difficulties in its administration to the patient. Therapies must be aggressive enough to combat the disease, yet avoid side effects that can have a strong negative impact on the patient. Localized drug delivery shows a great promise in the treatment of such disease. Therefore, particle engineering has been combined with pulmonary administration to generate new potentially effective delivery systems. Particles for pulmonary administration should present aerodynamic diameters between 0.5 and 5 m. Smaller particles may fail to deposit and are exhaled, whereas bigger ones may accumulate in the mouth and throat.
More information: http://www.fct.unl.pt/en/news/2016/05/ana-silva-receives-award-international-society-advancement-supercritical-fluids
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Ana Sofia Silva receives Best PhD Thesis Award from ISASF
Investigadora portuguesa premiada por usar física para tratar cancro do pulmão
published 19.May.2016
source: www.fct.unl.pt